Teorie dello Stato e della democrazia

L'articolo presenta una ricostruzione delle principali teorie dello Stato di area marxista: da Ralph Miliband, a Louis Althusser, a Nicos Poulantzas, fino agli approcci di William Domhoff, di Claus Offe e di Juergen Habermas, per finire con la teoria neomarxista di Jacques Bidet

High Density Lipoproteins Inhibit Oxidative Stress-Induced Prostate Cancer Cell Proliferation

Recent evidence suggests that oxidative stress can play a role in the pathogenesis and the progression of prostate cancer (PCa). Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation is higher in PCa cells compared to normal prostate epithelial cells and this increase is proportional to the aggressiveness of the phenotype. Since high density lipoproteins (HDL) are known to exert antioxidant activities, their ability to reduce ROS levels and the consequent impact on cell proliferation was tested in normal and PCa cell lines. HDL significantly reduced basal and H2O2-induced oxidative stress in normal, androgen receptor (AR)-positive and AR-null PCa cell lines. AR, scavenger receptor BI and ATP binding cassette G1 transporter were not involved. In addition, HDL completely blunted H2O2-induced increase of cell proliferation, through their capacity to prevent the H2O2-induced shift of cell cycle distribution from G0/G1 towards G2/M phase. Synthetic HDL, made of the two main components of plasma-derived HDL (apoA-I and phosphatidylcholine) and which are under clinical development as anti-atherosclerotic agents, retained the ability of HDL to inhibit ROS production in PCa cells. Collectively, HDL antioxidant activity limits cell proliferation induced by ROS in AR-positive and AR-null PCa cell lines, thus supporting a possible role of HDL against PCa progression

Bilateral Testicular Tumors in a Non-Cryptorchid Dog: Coexistence of Sertoli Cell and Interstitial Endocrine Cell Tumors

Background: Testicular neoplasms in dogs are more frequent than in other animal species, representing the most common tumors in elderly subjects after skin neoplasms. In cryptorchid subjects, the risk of neoplastic degeneration is high. The cytological examination is essential to differentiate the type of neoplasia and to determinate the best diagnostic approach. Aim of this report was to describe clinical and histopathological features of a dog with coexistence of Sertoli cell and interstitial endocrine cell tumors in a non-cryptorchid dog. Case: A 9-year-old non-neutered male dog, German Spitz breed, was presented to the  veterinary clinic.  On clinical examination, the dog had a body condition (BCS 6/9), pink mucous membranes, capillary refill time (CRT) < 2 sec, lymph nodes of normal size, afebrile, normal heart and respiratory rate. The abdomen was depressible to palpation, without pain, the skin appeared hyperpigmented, with generalized presence of comedones, pendular foreskin and absence of hair at the abdominal level, in the ventral portion of the trunk and neck, scant hair also at the level of the inner thighs and in perianal. At ultrasounds examinations, the right testicle presented a hypoechoic circular focal lesion, in the caudal pole, of 0.7 cm in diameter, well defined, echogenicity and a remnant of normal echostructure, smooth and regular margins; the left testicle showed an increase in size, irregular margins, with a heterogeneous echo structure, given by hypoechoic areas, referred to cysts, hemorrhagic or necrotic areas. The hemogram reported slightly microcytic and normochromic regenerative anemia. The leukogram showed monocytosis. The absence of the typical stress leukogram characterized by neutrophilia, lymphopenia and eosinopenia, and the reduction of ALP allows to rule out Cushing's disease. In order to rule out hypothyroidism due to the inhibitory effect of estrogens on the release of thyroid-stimulating hormone (TSH) the concentration of total thyroxine was analyzed, reporting normal values excluding hypothyroidism. Blood oestradiol 17-β (E2) concentration was increased, with a normal testosterone (T) concentration of 0.30 ng/mL. Given the suspicion of the presence of testicular tumors, castration was performed by the surgical excision of both gonads, after ruling out the presence of abdominal or pulmonary metastases by chest and abdominal radiography. Discussion: The clinical, histopathological findings supported the diagnosis of testicular tumors. According to the pathological report, both gonads presented parenchymal nodular neoplastic nodular areas referring to the Sertoli sustentacular cells in the right testicle, to the proliferation of Leydig interstitial cells in the left one. The nodule in the left testicle was unencapsulated and showed a solid-diffuse pattern. Neoplastic cells were irregular polygonal, medium to large in size with moderate nucleus/cytoplasm ratio and moderate anisocytosis. In the right testicle, the nodule was heterogeneous in consistency and a diffuse pattern was present. Neoplastic cells were polygonal morphology, had a moderate nucleus/cytoplasm ratio and were organized tubules lined and obliterated the extensive cell growth. Bilateral orchiectomy allowed to improve the clinical signs, and 3 months after surgery, the animal was in good health, with evident improvement skin lesions. The E2 analysis was repeated, detecting normal values, demonstrating that testicular neoplasm in this patient were involved in E2 production; also T concentration decreased considerably from 0.30 to < 0.07 values. Keywords: Sertoli cell tumor, testicular neoplasm, neoplastic cells, Leydig cell tumor, castration, canine

Synthesis and Crystal Structure of Bis(2-phenylpyridine-C,N')-bis(acetonitrile)iridium(III)hexafluorophosphate Showing Three Anion/Cation Couples in the Asymmetric Unit

The title compound bis(2-phenylpyridine-C,N')-bis(acetonitrile)iridium(III)hexafluorophosphate, a six-coordinate iridium(III) complex, crystallizes in the P-1 space group. Iridium is in a distorted octahedral (n = 6) coordination with the N,C' atoms of two phenylpyridine and the N atoms of two acetonitrile ligands. The peculiarity of this structure is that three independent moieties of the title compound and three PF6− anions, to counterbalance the charge, are observed in the asymmetric unit and this is a rather uncommon fact among the Cambridge Crystallographic Database (CSD) entries. The three couples are almost identical conformers with very similar torsional angles. The packing, symmetry, and space group were accurately analyzed and described also by means of Hirshfeld surface analysis, which is able to underline subtle differences among the three anion/cation couples in the asymmetric unit. The driving force of the packing is the clustering of the aromatic rings and the maximization of acetonitrile:PF6− interactions. The asymmetry of the cluster is the cause of the unusual number of moieties in the asymmetric unit

Impact of standardization in tissue processing: the performance of different fixatives

Most tissues in clinical practice are formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded for histological as well as molecular analyses. The reproducibility and uniformity of molecular analyses is strictly dependent on the quality of the biomolecules, which is highly influenced by pre-analytical processes. In this study, the effect of different fixatives was compared, including formalin, Bouin's solution, RCL2® and TAG-1™ fixatives, by stringent application of ISO standards in mouse liver tissue processing, including formalin-free transport of tissues and tissue grossing in a refrigerated environment. The effect of fixatives was studied in terms of nucleic acid quality at the time of tissue processing and after one year of tissue storage at room temperature in the dark. Furthermore, a microcomputed tomography (CT) scan analysis was applied to investigate the paraffin embedding. The results show that the application of ISO standards in tissue processing allows analysis of 400 bases amplicons from RNA and 1000 bases from DNA, even in extracts from formalin-fixed and paraffin-embedded tissues. However, after one year storage at room temperature in the dark, a degradation of the nucleic acids was observed. Nevertheless, extracts can still be analyzed, but for metachronous tests it is highly recommended to repeat the quantitation of housekeeping genes in order to standardize the extent of nucleic acid degradation